Jimmy Kimmel told his audience Wednesday night that his upcoming interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico would not air on ABC, but instead be posted to YouTube — a decision he attributed to pressure from the Trump administration and the Federal Communications Commission. Breitbart News, in a report by Entertainment Editor Jerome Hudson, characterized Kimmel’s explanation as a repeat of claims made earlier this year by former Late Show host Stephen Colbert, and said the real issue is a matter of equal-time fairness under federal law.
“I’ll be interviewing James Talarico tomorrow night under unusual circumstances,” Kimmel said, according to Breitbart. He noted that over more than two decades on the air, he had interviewed candidates from Hillary Clinton to Ted Cruz to Donald Trump himself, and recalled his 2015 sit-down with Trump during the Republican primary campaign, followed by a second interview in 2016 just before Trump became the nominee.
Kimmel’s account
“Now that he is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like,” Kimmel continued, per Breitbart’s transcript.
Kimmel said that out of consideration for ABC’s local affiliates — particularly in Texas, where the Democrat is running for Senate — the interview would be posted in full to the Jimmy Kimmel Live YouTube channel instead of being broadcast. He closed by urging viewers to register to vote, calling it “the most important thing you can do.”
Breitbart’s report disputes that account directly. There was no FCC threat, according to the outlet — not to Kimmel, not to ABC, and not to local stations. The site described Kimmel’s framing as a “steaming pile of bullshit,” and said Colbert had attempted to pass off the same narrative earlier in the year before CBS released a statement contradicting him. (CBS went on to cancel Colbert’s Late Show roughly three months later.)
The equal-time question
At the center of Breitbart’s argument is the FCC’s equal-time rule, which requires broadcast stations that give airtime to one legally qualified political candidate to offer comparable time to other candidates for the same office. Breitbart points out that Kimmel interviewed Trump in May 2016, before Trump clinched the Republican nomination, but did not have him back during the general election. Kimmel did interview Hillary Clinton on August 22, 2016, when she was the Democratic nominee. In Breitbart’s telling, that asymmetry — hosting the Democratic nominee during the general election without a corresponding appearance by the Republican nominee — amounted to a violation of federal law.
Kimmel, for his part, did not address the equal-time rule during the monologue, according to the report.
As of Breitbart’s writing, ABC had not issued a statement responding to Kimmel’s remarks. The outlet noted that CBS needed only one day to fact-check Colbert when a similar controversy arose.
Precedent from the Colbert interview
Breitbart frames Kimmel’s YouTube move as an echo of Colbert’s Talarico interview earlier this year, which was also posted online rather than broadcast. That interview drew nearly 10 million views after the controversy Colbert generated around it, according to the report. Breitbart describes the episode as an in-kind contribution to Talarico’s campaign.
The report also raises the question of the other Democrats in the Texas Senate primary — Rep. Jasmine Crockett and businessman Ahmad Hassan — who, in Breitbart’s account, were shortchanged by the attention Colbert gave Talarico. In July, Crockett described the race as “a racist race,” per the report, and she has since declined to campaign alongside Talarico.
Breitbart suggests Kimmel could have sidestepped the situation by inviting Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whom Kimmel once called “a piece of human Silly Putty,” but argues Kimmel won’t do so because of his long-standing support for Democratic candidates and fundraising efforts.
Broader Disney-FCC tensions
The dispute lands amid a broader legal fight between Disney and the FCC. According to Breitbart, the two sides are already embroiled in a battle over the agency’s decision to initiate an early license renewal process for the eight TV stations Disney owns and operates. Disney has argued that its daytime talk show The View is a news program and therefore exempt from federal equal-time rules governing candidate airtime during elections. The Trump administration is also investigating Disney over allegations that its diversity, equity, and inclusion hiring and promotion practices violate civil rights laws, the outlet reported.
Separately, in July, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said ABC’s decision not to carry President Trump’s live speech on election security would factor into the agency’s investigation regarding the network’s broadcast license.
Kimmel’s week has been eventful beyond the Talarico controversy. On Tuesday, a report described as a bombshell claimed ABC would be ending Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2027. The network has since denied that claim, according to Breitbart. ABC has not commented publicly on the monologue itself.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2026/09/10/jimmy-kimmel-pulls-a-colbert-lies-about-fcc-threats-forcing-him-to-air-talarico-interview-on-youtube-not-abc/